Words From a Glass Bubble by Vanessa Gebbie, reviewed by Debbie

Words from a Glass Bubble by Vanessa Gebbie

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars


"Words from a Glass Bubble" by Vanessa Gebbie is a collection of nineteen of her short stories, compiled in a handsome hardback from Salt Publishing. There's no overarching narrative, but although the stories are very different, some themes and images crop up more than once.

Gebbie's talent is to shine a light onto her characters, giving us brief insights into their lives, their hopes, their disappointments, and--most of all--their mistakes, before moving on, leaving us with the hope that the characters too will carry on, make better decisions, have better luck, once the spotlight is removed.

Each story has its own voice, from "Words in a Glass Bubble" itself, where a family tries to come to terms with the loss of their son, to "Smoking Down There", where a child naively recounts her friend's story of how she almost inadvertently saved her baby brother from being disposed of at birth. The fragmentary, butterfly narrative convinces as that of a child. 'But then, if you smoked down there why didn't the hairs catch fire? That's what I wanted to know. But the bucket. Why wash out of a bucket when there were perfectly nice china things?'

Gebbie doesn't shy away from the darker side of life. One story, "Irrigation", goes into great detail--too great detail for this reader--about an enema. In "Dodie's Gift", the central character is left lost and wondering, "...if someone takes something you were going to give them anyway, is that stealing?' Reading this story, it's hard to decide whether to give her a hug or a good shake. Either, you think, might damage her beyond repair.

This story contains an image that recurs--'But there, at the bottom of the hollow, a gull has had a meal, and the sand holds white bone, red bone, skin....' The predator devours, leaves what it doesn't want, and moves on. What's been devoured, abandoned, somehow has to move on, too. Its life now may not be what it envisaged, but it still holds significance.

None of the stories is too long, although it's easy to feel some are too short. The characters live on in our minds and we can't help wondering what will happen next. If they'll come out all right.

This collection is definitely one to savour. Read a story, put it down, think about it, come back--the whole can't be devoured in an afternoon.


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The Fireborn Chronicles by Mary Andrews, reviewed by kaolin

The Fireborn Chronicles by Mary Andrews

My review

rating: 2 of 5 stars

The Fireborn Chronicles is a psionic/space-faring epic. The focus of the chronicles is Rael--an adoptee/refugee from The Hive with implants that allow him to access any data terminal with a thought. He's groomed by his foster-mother for Dark Ops government work, given his own ship and told to assemble a team of his choosing.

The first several sections of the book are essentially short stories jumping from place to place as we're introduced to the team that he assembles. The plot picks up when the team is together-at-last and has to track down what happened to a high-ranking ambassador. In the end, the fate of the known universe hangs in the balance.

Mary Andrews sets a grand stage with many inventive ideas--but as a whole this novel does not tell the story it sets out to as well as I would have liked. It was an easy read, slipping into cliche only now and then, though each section repeated details as if I'd not been privy to them before, jerking me out of the narrative repeatedly. And while a very complex universe is hinted at, its rendering was sparse and, I felt, the hinting overreached its presentation:

PSI of a certain sort are universally recognized, but are only allowed to live in one section of one planet; aliens of all sorts exist somewhere (accomodations have been made for them on a pleasure planet; and we meet one non-humanoid in the form of a station master), but for brief mention they have nothing to do with this story that "will change the universe".

I know the story is not meant to be taken too seriously, but still I wanted things to hang together a bit more. We jump from character introduction to character introduction as a team is gathered (losing one along the way, not to be mentioned again until half-way through the book, and then only off-handedly explained), with large gaps in character development.

And while the plot kept me increasingly curious, what wrapped it up was, for me, ultimately unsatisfying--a deus ex machina that is relatively unexplained and unexplored. The book largely read as a few snippets plus a larger novella whose main purpose was jumping off into another, as of yet untold, story.

All that said, I'm sure there's many a reader that will enjoy this book. It's a "psionic sci fi" romp with tinges of Harry Harrison's Stainless Steel Rat and tinges of Babylon 5, where everything works out in the end.


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More Than A Cover

Here's the assembled Steam Bat!



(Photo used by kind permission of Zak Jarvis)

Issue 3 Pre-launch Buzz Contest

Issue 3 is an amazing creation, crammed full of stories and art, with poems, Flash fiction and an entertaining report to leaven the mix. Whether we're battling a mechanical daemon in "A Song, a Prayer, an Empty Space" or experiencing jealousy towards unusual rivals in "Soon You Will Be Gone and Possibly Eaten", we're following the theme of Mechanical Flight into strange and unexpected places (and at times flying further afield).

Here's the (self-referential) Pre-launch Buzz Contest: blog about the launch contest with a link back to this post--then leave a comment at this post with a link to your blog post.  You'll be entered to win A FULL SET OF GUD, HARDCOPY (Issues 0-3). If we don't receive at least 100 entries, we reserve the right not to award this prize, so BE SURE TO TELL YOUR FRIENDS!  You've got seven days to help spread the word (give or take -- through the end of Friday, Pacific Standard Time)

BONUS: First ten entries win a PDF of Issue 3!  And we'll spread a few more goodies around if response warrants it. :)

BONUS 2: Everyone creating an account gets a freebie from Issue 3 just for signing up (it'll be in your account, waiting).  Everyone who already had an account?  You've got a new freebie waiting for you, too.

What's in Issue 3?

 
SO SPREAD THE WORD! :D

Getting Social

GETTING SOCIAL - BLOG SUBSCRIPTIONS

As one small step towards enabling a bustling cultural center for literary and genre fiction, poetry, etc (one very small step), GUD has now entered the late 90's in terms of blog subscriptions.

You can now be notified when new comments have been left on the posts you like--thus helping you back to the site and fostering dialog!  To further enable this, we've removed the somewhat draconic requirement for every comment to be verified by staff--if you've had a comment verified, then you're good to go from there on out.  We love your feedback!

To help you manage all of this, we've created a "subscriptions" area (linked from your account), where you can see what posts you're subscribed to, unsubscribe from them individually (or en masse), or "reset" them if you've lost track of what threads might have gotten recent comments.

http://www.gudmagazine.com/user/subscriptions.php

There's been some discussion on our previous blog post, "A posting for your thoughts?", but we'd love more.  :)  Who knows, with more dialog, maybe the chatroom will get some real use.  It does take hanging out there a bit for someone to stop by, sometimes.

And maybe we'll cobble in those forums I've been dreaming of...

GETTING SOCIAL - GRAVATARS

"A gravatar, or globally recognized avatar, is quite simply an avatar image that follows you from weblog to weblog appearing beside your name when you comment on gravatar enabled sites. Avatars help identify your posts on web forums, so why not on weblogs?"

We've now integrated gravatars throughout the site (staff blog, review blog, and on your account pages).  We're using the "identicon" plugin which gives folks who haven't registered with gravatar a probabalistically unique image as well, a pretty geometric pattern + color.

This hopefully adds a little bit of non-invasive personalization and simpatico.

GETTING SOCIAL - WHERE ELSE YOU CAN FIND US

If you're on a social network, chances are we're there, too. :)  Many of them are linked in our footer, but here's a larger partial listing:

• YouTube - http://www.youtube.com/user/gudmagazine
  
  
  
  
  • Public Service Announcement--go read a magazine
  
  
  • GUD teaser video
    
     
  
  
  
  


• MySpace - http://www.myspace.com/gudmagazine  
  
   


• Facebook -
  
  
  
  
  • Greatest U. Denominator
  
  
  • Greatest Uncommon Denominator Group
  
  
  • Greatest Uncommon Denominator Page
    
     
  
  
  
  


• GoodReads - http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/431377
  
   


• LiveJournal - http://community.livejournal.com/gudmagazine/
  
   


• Blogger - http://gudmagazine.blogspot.com/
  
   


• Yuwie - http://ww2.yuwie.com/profile/?id=92832

Are we missing something? :)

Last Dragon by J.M. McDermott, reviewed by Debbie

Last Dragon by J.M. McDermott

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars


"Last Dragon", published as the first of the Wizard of the Coast Discoveries, is like no Fantasy novel I've ever read. It's non-linear, told as a series of letters? reminiscences? campfire tales? that flit about events and times yet slowly and inexorably bring the reader to the book's conclusion.

To sum up the principal narrative, primary narrator Zahn is on the verge of qualifying as a Rider, a warrior who fights on bison-back, when news comes that her putative grandfather has murdered her mother and all her illegitimate siblings, plus the village shaman. Now Zahn cannot be a Rider; she must follow the shaman's path, instead. But first, she and her uncle Seth must hunt down her grandfather, and exact retribution. She and Seth travel to distant Proliux, where they are separated. Only when Zahn falls in with heretic paladin Adel does she make progress towards her goal. But mercenary forces threaten Zahn's homeland, and perhaps only she and Adel can save it.

Yet when we first meet Zahn, she is an old woman, looking back on her life and grieving for her lost lover, Esumi, and her murdered child. History, it seems, has repeated itself.

It's a sad tale, littered with betrayals, and at the same time uncompromising. No convenient explanations are offered for what sometimes seems inexplicable--what was Adel's motive, after all? Perhaps Zahn and her quest take the place of the lost dragon to whom Adel previously gave her allegiance, but if that's so, the novel isn't going to give up the information easily. This is a book that demands to be read, pondered, and re-read, if it's to be understood by the reader.

One barrier, for me, to engaging with the narrative was that when it changes time and/or place, it makes no overt attempt to clue the reader in. Given the book's told in a lot of short snippets, some only a couple of pages long, some less than a page, this means the reader is constantly jarred by the need to work out where they are and what's going on. This choppiness leads to disengagement, and also means that important information at the beginnings of scenes is lost in the struggle. Further, when the book changes narrators, it doesn't change voice. Towards the middle, it's hard to know if it's Zahn talking to us, or Fest, a mercenary who joins her crew. The overall effect is a bit like trying to understand a radio play when someone--without any warning--keeps switching the channels.

This book will reward the reader who seeks not immersion in the fictive dream, but the challenge of putting together a disjointed narrative into a text that has meaning for them.


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A Posting for Your Thoughts?

We sometimes pretend that we have a little time left over from creating GUD Magazine, and we'd be interested to know how you think we should use it:

EITHER

• A pay-to-submit (not huge sums--maybe $2 or $3 an entry) contest, where the top so-many winners split the pot with GUD?  Winning content would be published on the site.  Would you participate?

OR

• Small Flash games based on stuff we've published.  Stories, art, poems--the field is open!  Whaddya think?*

Let us know which you'd prefer!  Or suggest something else entirely. :)

In the meantime, let us tell you what we've got coming up:

• A "What type of creativity are you?" quiz hosted on GUD.  Maybe this will be the meme that takes off.  And if you need the distraction, something from a few years ago: "What type of Poem are you?"


• More blog content!  Ideas welcome :) .  Do you want interviews with our contribs?  Meanderings about the magazine creation process?  Tell us!


• Issue 3!  Issue 3 is coming up!  We're in the final round of proofing, so it should be going to the printer this week or next!  Julia's about to close Issue 4 so she can make her final picks, and I'm about to open Issue 5 up to submissions.  All current submissions not shortlisted will be considered for Issue 5.

*of course, we wouldn't dream of doing this without contributor consent.  But if you've got an idea, we'll see if we can make it happen.

Eternal Vigilance by Gabrielle Faust, reviewed by Jess Nash

Eternal Vigilance by Gabrielle Faust

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars


When I know a book is going to be part of a series, it has to be pretty darn good for me to consider forking out for future instalments. Unfortunately, this book doesn’t work so well as a stand-alone novel, and that was disappointing.

Basically, Eternal Vigilance is a vampire Fantasy novel set in 2111. Tynan, a vampire who created and led his own religion, has been asleep for a hundred years. After letting down the vampires who followed him, when his belief in his own faith crumbled, he cast a spell that should have sent him to sleep forever. It didn’t. He wakes to find the world he once knew ravaged by a fierce war, and technology literally evolving on its own.

Tynan is different from other vampires–-every time he kills and feeds he absorbs the pasts of his victims into his own memory. It is this unusual characteristic, as well as the human traits he can’t shake off, which led to his hatred of the world and a battle in which he disgraced himself by killing another vampire.

The first half of Eternal Vigilance deals mainly with backstory, which is necessary but a little tedious. However, when you get through that part, things start to get more interesting. Some of the immortals are not exactly pleased by Tynan’s return, and he fears their reactions. It's obvious Tynan is special, as well as an outcast in the immortal council. The story builds up slowly and delicately, as we gradually learn more about the Phuree, a rebel uprising that believes in ancient magic rather than the new technology favoured by the all-powerful Tyst Empire.

I absolutely loved the cover art, with a moment of “Ooo, shiny!” when I first picked the book up. Very appealing to my goth side. It took me a while to get into the story, and I wasn’t really sure if I was going to like it at first. It’s a bit hit and miss in places, but it’s obvious the author has a lot of good ideas, which I’m really hoping will come through later on.

Tynan is quirky and likeable. The relationship he has with his pet cat Dune is a particularly nice touch. I would have liked all the main characters to be drawn with a little more depth, but as this is only the first part of a series I would expect their story arcs to be pursued later on. I found it a little hard to follow the story in places as some of the characters weren’t distinguished well enough from others. Although Eternal Vigilance can be tough going at times, I still think it’s a pretty good read.

Eternal Vigilance is interesting and poetically written, although the poetic language can get a bit purple in places. I am intrigued to see what will happen in the second instalment--hopefully after such a long build-up there will be a lot more violence and action, and also more explanation of the exciting technology and magic which has appeared only in brief glimpses so far.

Good fun, and slightly camp. A worthy addition to any collection of vampire fiction.


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Bloodshot Monochrome by Patience Agbabi, reviewed by Debbie

Bloodshot Monochrome by Patience Agbabi

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars

It's a thin book. However, if you're about to become the romper room for someone else's narratives, neuroses and hang-ups, it's cheery that the book is at least thin. They won't be here long. Maybe you can cope.

So Patience enters your romper room. 'Shots', the first of the five parts of this poetry collection, turns it around. She wants neither to invade, nor to assault. You've been invited into her sitting room, sat down with a glass of wine, and she gently soothes you with her lyrical voice. Don't be afraid, she says, I've serious things to say, but I'll say them gently, whilst the cat of my metre sits on your lap and purrs. It's okay to laugh, she says, when you get to 'On turning on the TV...' I'm glad you did, and was afraid you wouldn't.

So that by the end of 'Shots', you want to stay some more and listen. This is as well, because the next two parts, 'Monologues' and 'Problem Pages' are not quite as successful. 'Josephine Baker Finds Herself' is a genuinely clever, successful poem. 'Yore my type' is amusing, but you have to wonder how successfully Patience has entered this other world, or are we sharing a misconception of an alien lifestyle? 'Problem Pages', where Patience has famous writers set her questions which she then answers, may appeal to some, and be a useful resource for literature teachers, but it left me cold after the first couple.

In 'Blood Letters', Patience seems to return to letting us share her experiences. Not as comfortable as 'Shots', but we know each other by now, and it's okay to dare a bit and exchange more personal stuff. Exchange? Reading a book of poems? Yeah, you'll be surprised how you start talking back. Until, with 'Black and White and Red All Over', you're shamed into silence. Momentarily. Patience is not a vicious woman.

The last section, 'Vicious Circle', is a long work. Fourteen paired stanzas, highly structured, clearly thought out. I'm not sure I got the story first time around, but as I made my goodbyes and left this writer's room, buttoning an imaginary coat against an imaginary wind, I didn't feel I'd wasted time. I wanted to visit again, maybe ask some more questions. A good time out.

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